Mister Paul Ryan’s Plan to Turn Gen-Xers into Republicans

Huh! An odd bit of trivia concerning tonight’s rhetorical match-up between Onion muse Joe Biden and Sig Chi rush chairbro Paul Ryan: Biden will refer to Ryan as “Mr. Ryan,” not “Congressman Ryan,” or “Pledge Master Ryan.” Politico reports: “The form of address is part of the detailed memorandum of understanding between the two camps, according to the sources familiar with the document. . . The sources did not spell out with precision why ‘mister’ was preferable to ‘congressman,’ but it is almost certainly because of the low approval ratings overall of Congress.” It could have something to do with that, yes.

Other theories: “Mr. Ryan” is the name of the teacher in the belovedBill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure—a sort of Inception-like time-travel movie from the late 80s except more internally consistent. Is the Mr. Ryan gambit an attempt to subconsciously win over Gen-X independents? If so, the congressman has got to work a bit harder than that, considering the fact that limp-haired patron saint of the 90s, Ethan Hawke, recently said of Ryan: “I see people of my generation being fully realized in their work, and I find that really kind of exciting. But politics? Paul Ryan is certainly not my man.” Hey, 90s buzzwords “my man” and “fully realized”! It’s like Reality Bites 2: This One’s About Vampires.

Anyway, this totally opens the door for Biden to refer to Ryan as “Mr. Tough Guy” and “Mr. Big Shot.”